Gamma Gets Going

Credit: Univ. of Wisconsin Tropical Cyclone Research Team

Incredibly, Tropical Storm Gamma officially was declared the 27th 24th named storm of the 2005 season this afternoon. The Hational Hurricane Center discussion says:

THERE IS LITTLE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE MODELS ON THE TRACK OF GAMMA...AS MOST OF THE GLOBAL MODELS FORECAST DISSIPATION IN 72 HR OR LESS. THE GFS AND NOGAPS FORECAST A VERY WEAK GAMMA TO TURN EASTWARD ACROSS THE CARIBBEAN ... WHILE THE GFDL BRINGS A STRONGER GAMMA TOWARD SOUTH FLORIDA.

The name "Gamma" comes from the third letter of the Greek alphabet. Having run out of English letters, the National Hurricane Center now is using letters and (if we're unlucky) symbols from other languages.

Hurricane season is supposed to end November 30. Let's hope there are enough foreign language letters to cover future storms.
Update
"It just won't stop," says the Miami Herald (free subscription required) in an early evening tropical weather update:

Tropical Storm Gamma soon could follow Hurricane Wilma's trail across South Florida -- a place still tattooed with blue tarps, still filled with dangerous piles of hurricane debris, still shaken by the most active hurricane season in history.

* * *
Preliminary and unusually uncertain predictions carried Gamma to the Naples area Monday and then diagonally across South Florida as a strong tropical storm -- but with winds likely below the 74-mph threshold of a hurricane.

High clouds associated with Gamma already flowed over South Florida. Forecasters warned of the possibility of three to six inches of rain and gusty winds through Monday.

But they said Gamma's fate -- and South Florida's -- was not clear. The storm was not well organized and it could fall apart or dramatically shift direction before it approaches Florida.

Double Whammy In Dark New Orleans

Most of us have the impression that the tragedy of New Orleans is primarily due to accidents of fate combined with the negligence of hapless incompetents. But deliberate, unconscionable Bush administration policies which were adopted well before Hurricane Katrina also are significantly slowing the post-storm recovery effort.

The Seattle Times earlier this week published a truncated version of Los Angeles Times reporter Ellen Barry's dispatch a day earlier from New Orleans. The bottom line is that as of today "forty percent of the homes in New Orleans, most of them lying east of the Industrial Canal, do not have electricity."

Although some structures were effectively destroyed, Barry writes, "in other areas, residents say, rebuilding could start immediately if basic services were turned on." Chief among these needed services is electric power.

Citizen anger spilled over at a Town Hall meeting last week. Symptomatic was this comment, from homeowner Dennis Scott:

"Entergy needs to be placed on the carpet here. I know you have financial problems, but whatever happened to contingency planning? We're talking about a Fortune 500 company here…. Entergy, you need to be — I hate to say it — shot."

The Seattle paper's foreshortened version of Barry's article may puzzle some readers because it omits key facts that help to explain why residents are so spitting mad. To figure out what's really going on, you need to read the full story as it was originally published in the Los Angeles paper (free subscription required).

A utility company called "Entergy New Orleans" is the area's dominant power company. But it "filed for bankruptcy protection Sept. 23," three weeks after Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

"Entergy New Orleans" is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Entergy Corporation. The parent corporation describes itself as an "integrated energy company" that provides primarily electric power. In fact, it is a giant on the corporate landscape -- the second largest nuclear plant power producer in the nation.

The parent company's stock price dropped only slightly when its New Orleans subsidiary took bankruptcy. The price has since recovered to near historic highs. Why the rebound? A month ago Entergy Corporation reported higher third quarter "consolidated earnings" of $1.64 per share, compared with $1.22 a share the year before.

Almost simultaneously, however, the parent corporation announced that henceforth it will be reporting its New Orleans subsidiary's earnings separately, as if it were entirely independent. By separately reporting the subsidiary's financials, the parent's financial skirts look cleaner than they really are. (Sound familiar, Enron fans?)

Entergy also elected to adopt what it calls "ring fencing" around the New Orleans subsidiary. This effectively means the New Orleans subsidiary will no longer receive funds from the parent corporation.

Immediately afterwards, Entergy New Orleans sent away the repair crews that had come in from outside the area. Cut off by the parent, the New Orleans subsidiary could no longer afford to pay out-of-state utility crews. Efforts to restore power slowed to a trickle.

So, even as the parent corporation was enjoying record profits it was busily shoving its New Orleans subsidiary out of the house. And here's the kicker: Entergy New Orleans now is seeking a subsidy from U.S. taxpayers!

According to the Los Angeles Times, "Its chief executive has said the company needs $450 million in federal assistance to survive in the face of restoration costs and the sudden drop in revenue." This, even though the most recent consolidated balance sheet for the parent corporation shows it has over $28.5 billion in assets and only about $2 billion in short and longterm liabilities.

As Floridians know only too well, the restoration of power after a hurricane is absolutely essential to economic recovery. If New Orleans and suburbs are to have any kind of an economic future, they need power restored as quickly as possible and the people there don't much care where the money comes from.

From safely outside the darkened city, though, one can't escape deploring Entergy's despicable corporate game of "heads we win, tails you lose." The parent corporation was happy enough to call its New Orleans subsidiary 'family' as long as profits from Entergy New Orleans kept flowing upwards to the parent and its shareholders, who are dominated by banks and institutional investors. The moment the subsidary needed help, however, Entergy cut it loose, pretended it didn't even know the beggar at the door, and packed it off to beg from Uncle Sam.

There is another aspect to the story that goes beyond Ellen Barry's immediate purposes. The same month Entergy-the-parent turned its back on its subsidiary, the so-called Consumer Bankruptcy Reform Act went into effect. That odious statute was promoted by the Bush administration and supported by congressman and senators of both political parties who are in the pay of credit card companies. The law makes it significantly tougher and more expensive for individuals, families, and small businesses to get a fresh start in life once they are faced with back-breaking debt.

Recent studies of individual bankruptcies show that at least half of all individual bankruptcies are triggered by unavoidable medical emergencies. Other dominant causes are sudden job loss and catastrophic property losses. That's a pretty good summary of the kinds of damage Hurricane Katrina has caused throughout New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast.

Those individuals and small businesses least able to shoulder the burden of debt, thanks to this year's 'reform' of bankruptcy law, face the biggest obstacles to discharging their debts and getting a fresh start. At the same time, those corporations like Entergy which are most able to afford Katrina reconstruction expenses are finding it easy to take bankruptcy and escape their responsibilities.

It's this double whammy that is keeping New Orleans dark. As one business blog put it yesterday, in an excellent summary of the negative economic effects of the Bush administration's bankruptcy law policies, "the bankruptcy regulations that apply to big businesses were left pretty much the same" while the Bush administration's new consumer bankruptcy bill is making the lives of individuals and small businesses "far worse."

Florida Graduation Cheating

While proctoring Jeb Bush's latest claims about Florida graduation rates, Blogwood caught the governor cheating-- again.

In theory, there's nothing wrong with counting G.E.D. and "special" degrees along with those who formally graduate from accredited high schools. Nothing, that is, except that's not how national "graduation rates" are calculated.

It's just like home repair. If you want to do the job right, you don't measure feet and inches with a metric meter stick.

'Very Nervous' Hunters

Once again, the Pensacola News Journal is giving front-page treatment to the story we are sorely tempted to call Antlers-gate, or maybe Bambi-gate. Today, crack reporter Brett Norman is mining affidavits "filed in the U.S. District Court of Western Wisconsin."

The affidavits, in support of warrants to search two hunting properties used by [hutning guide] Lawinger and one of his e-mail accounts, report multiple instances of unlicensed hunting, baited deer fields and hunting during closed seasons.

Several of those charged locally are named in the statements.

Norman seems to be looking for anything that would explain why some Pensacola bigwigs are alleged to have violated Wisconsin hunting laws and others aren't -- notably, Escambia County administrator George Touart. Norman explains:

Since the charges were filed last week, questions have surfaced about why Touart is the only member of his party who was not charged in the February hunt, even though he was the only one to kill a deer and return it to Pensacola.

His fate remained unknown Wednesday as officials with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Madison, Wis., continued refusing to say whether more charges are pending.

Given the facts reported so far, there would seem to be only three possible explanations. One is that Touart is about to be charged with a federal crime. The second is that he isn't. And the third is he has turned state's evidence and agreed to testify against his fellow hunters from Pensacola.

"I'm sure George is very nervous," the reporter quotes county commissioner Mike Whitehead as saying. "I would be."

He might be, indeed.

Flood Insurance Payments Halted; FEMA Tapped Out

Has not the famous political Fable of the Snake, with two Heads and one Body, some useful Instruction contained in it? She was going to a Brook to drink, and in her Way was to pass thro’ a Hedge, a Twig of which opposed her direct Course; one Head chose to go on the right side of the Twig, the other on the left, so that time was spent in the Contest, and, before the Decision was completed, the poor Snake died with thirst.

-- Benjamin Franklin on Congress, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin (1907 ed.)

USA Today, the flagship newspaper of Gannett, reported yesterday that FEMA has ordered "the 96 insurance companies that sell flood policies to stop payments to policyholders until Congress says the agency can borrow more money."

According to the paper, this is "the first time since the flood insurance program began in 1968 that FEMA has taken this action."

The news also can be found in today's the print edition of the Pensacola News Journal, but not (yet?) on its web site.

Authorization to allow FEMA to borrow an additional $8.5 billion cleared the House of Representatives yesterday. It now has to be approved by the Senate and signed by the president.

With the long Thanksgiving weekend approaching, insurance claim payments likely won't resume until next week.

Happy holidays, flood victims!

Politicians Claim They're Stupid

"If you're a deer...you have to be enjoying all the delicious ironies."

The story has already faded in Wisconsin, but here in Pensacola the Wisconsin illegal hunters' sting operation is still front-page stuff. The News Journal now has assigned two reporters to the case.

Today they filed three articles. Can we now honor the story with a "-gate" suffix? "Deergate," maybe, or "Badgergate"?

Kris Thoma and Brett Norman are reporting --

"Escambia County Sheriff Ron McNesby and County Commissioner Mike Whitehead, charged with violating Wisconsin hunting laws, are pleading ignorance of that state's regulations and accusing their hunting guide of deceiving them."

It's the 'I'm Really Just A Dumb Hick' defense combined with 'Blame the Guide.' Locals know that rank stupidity fits these politicians like a beanie fits a dunce. But Wisconsin law enforcement officers aren't buying it.

Chief Warden Randy Stark of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said undercover state and federal agents posed as hunters during the two-year investigation of Blue River Outfitters. The probe was instigated by citizens' complaints.

Stark said Tuesday that ignorance of the law is no excuse for Lawinger's clients.

"The vast majority of law-abiding hunters would agree with this: It's ultimately the responsibility of the hunters to know and follow the law, wherever they hunt," Stark said.

"Many of these charges are very basic, regardless of what state you go to. I think there's evidence in this case that will demonstrate that there was knowledge or that there should have been."

No, no, says Escambia County Commissioner Mike Whitehead. "I'm a victim."

McNesby and Whitehead said Tuesday that Lawinger told them hunters on private property did not need licenses and were permitted in some counties to hunt during the off-season.

* * *
McNesby said Tuesday he has expensive hunting licenses from several states and would have gladly purchased one in Wisconsin if Lawinger had not told him it was unnecessary.

Would you believe it? Those pesky badgers in Wisconsin just don't believe our county politicians.

Wisconsin wildlife officials who came to Pensacola to interview McNesby in May offered a different account.

"McNesby apologized ... for not getting a license to hunt," according to an affidavit by conservation warden Michael Nice of the Department of Natural Resources. "He said he should have known better."

If you're a deer -- or if you know these guys, as a lot of people in Pensacola do all too well -- you have to be enjoying all the delicious ironies. As CNN commentator Paul Begala asked three years ago when four other Escambia county commissioners were convicted of violating laws they claimed they didn't understand, "Is there something in the water in Florida that leads Republicans to break the law?"

Hunting the Hunters

"When I look at the evidence in this investigation, I find it disturbing that these majestic animals were taken for the mere sake of greed and ego."

-- U.S. Fish & Game special agent, Madison, WI

Fresh news reports out of Wisconsin this morning suggest that "the hunting guide accused of taking out-of-state hunters on illegal deer and turkey hunts" agreed six months ago to become a prosecution witness against his customers, including 18 Pensacola residents charged with illegal deer and turkey hunting.

Apparently, the plea bagaining session went like nothing on "Law and Order." It was more like "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

According to the defense attorney for Wisconsin hunting guide Adam Lawinger, after more than two years of undercover investigations, "game wardens arrived in Blue River early May 2 ... . Lawinger sat them down, cooked them breakfast, and proceeded to give them a 13-hour statement in which he confessed to everything ... ."

"He spilled his guts," the defense lawyer said. "He admitted to everything."

Law enforcement officers talked about the case with Wisconsin reporters late last week while displaying "a wall of confiscated hunting weapons, mounted turkeys and trophy bucks."

Randy Stark, state Department of Natural Resources chief warden, said this was likely the largest case in Wisconsin involving a hunting guide and clients. He called it "a theft of a resource owned by all Wisconsin citizens" and decried the emphasis on "trophy hunting."

In addition to Escambia County administrator George Tuart's unexplained involvement in the case, as noted in today's PNJ article, there is another outstanding mystery.

According to a Madison, Wisconsin, television station"Throughout the court documents there is mention of an unindicted co–conspirator, someone who co–owned the lands and helped run the guide service with Lawinger. Officials would not comment on who this person was or why they haven't been charged."

Charged with violating hunting laws in Wisconsin are 46 people from 11 different states, but nearly 40 percent of all defendants come from Pensacola.

Pensacola Big-Wigs Busted in Wisconsin

"A righteous man respects the life of his animal: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel."

-- Proverbs 12:10

An undercover sting of illegal deer and turkey hunting in southwest Wisconsin "culminated Wednesday when state and federal prosecutors filed 186 charges against 46 people from 11 states." Out of the 46 people charged, 18 are from Pensacola, including prominent Pensacola politicians and a Baptist minister.

In a top-of-the-front-page headline story, the Pensacola News Journal's Kris Thoma reports, "Escambia County Sheriff Ron McNesby, Escambia County Commissioner Mike Whitehead, the Rev. Gordon Godfrey of Marcus Pointe Baptist Church and 15 other local residents" were among those being charged in Wisconsin.

Also involved in some unspecified way, the local reporter writes, is Escambia County administrator George Tuart. Touart purportedly "has not been charged and refused to discuss the matter Monday night."

Thoma says the charges against McNesby and Whitehead include hunting deer during the closed season and hunting deer "over bait." McNesby also faces an additional charge of hunting deer without a license, the paper reports.

At the center of the case is Adam Lee Lawinger, who owns and operates Blue River Outfitters. Lawinger has been charged in federal court "with conspiring to sell deer and turkeys that were illegally hunted and transported across state lines." Wisconsin news reports say it is alleged --

"that he sold guided deer and turkey hunts on land he and an unindicted co- conspirator owned or leased. In the process, the charges allege, Lawinger allowed hunters to kill deer and turkeys without licenses, used female deer carcasses more than once to register multiple bucks, baited deer within chronic wasting disease control zones, and shined and shot deer at night.

Baptist minister Godfrey told local reporters that over the past few years he "organized Christian hunting trips... for numerous church members" led by Lawinger.

What's a "Christian hunting trip" involve? Among the accusations Godfrey faces are:

· Hunting deer with an improper license.
· Hunting wild turkey during the closed season.
· Hunting wild turkey without a valid permit.
· Hunting wild turkey without a license.
· Transporting/possessing untagged turkey.
· Failure to make an effort to retrieve downed game.

According to Randy Stark, Wisconsin's chief game warden, during the multi-year undercover sting operation, "We observed an almost obsessive overemphasis on trophy hunting. By making shooting a trophy the only goal of hunting, cutting corners on fair chase became acceptable to these poachers, and complying with conservation law became optional."

Disgraceful

"The establishment of the writ of habeas corpus, the prohibition of ex post facto laws, and of Titles of Nobility ... are perhaps greater securities to liberty and republicanism than any [the Constitution] contains."

-- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Paper No. 84, 1788

Any U.S. senator of any political party who votes to abolish habeas corpus for suspected "enemy combatants" is a disgrace to the Founding Fathers, the U.S. Constitution, the nation, and the ideal of "liberty and justice for all."

Full stop.

'Gulf Coast Watchers'

Majikthise today is calling attention to the new Internet project called Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch.

Through much of the Gulf Coast coast, there's now an eery silence. The hurricanes have left, the flood waters have receded, and the TV cameras are nearly all gone.

But for the people of the hurricane-ravaged South, the struggle for their region's future has just begun.

While residents are focused on picking up the pieces a handful of powerful interests -- well-connected contractors, unscrupulous developers, and ambitious politicians -- are cutting deals, making plans and seeking to capitalize on the disaster.

But who's watching them? We are.

Today, the Institute for Southern Studies and Southern Exposure have launched an urgent new project to watch-dog what's happening in the Southern Gulf, and promote a more democratic and accountable future: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch.

It seems almost any reader can help. The Institute invites you to --

• Submit news items or personal stories;


• Offer feedback;


• Register to become a regular contributor;
  
• Recommend the site to others; or


• Subscribe to the award-winning magazine Southern Exposure, or make a financial contribution.

The Institute for Southern Studies is based in Durham, N.C.. For more than thirty years it has had an "established a national reputation as an essential resource for grassroots activists, community leaders, scholars, policy makers and others working to bring lasting social and economic change to the region."

'Slow Rolling' in Mississippi

Does this sound familiar, Floridians? From the Dallas Morning News:

"Nobody has gotten anything," Mr. LePage said as he watched workers carry out once-beloved items from his home. "We're totally dissatisfied with the progress on the insurance. Anything to keep from paying."

Nearly three months after Katrina, frustrations are mounting for residents whose homes and possessions were laid waste by the storm. Like the LePages, most want to get on with their lives, but they've had difficulty reaching anything more than a recording at their insurance companies. They've had trouble getting meetings with adjusters, and they've yet to see money paid out on claims.

Many believe the insurance companies are quibbling over damage claims that should be paid, and lawsuits are mounting as a result.

"Here we are still waiting," said Mr. LePage's daughter Laura Ann, whose New Orleans East home was flooded with about three feet of water. "You can't do anything. You're just on hold, really."

Dicky Scrubbs, the Mississippi lawyer representing thousands of Katrina claimants, told the Morning News, "The delays are no accident. Insurers are practicing a technique known as 'slow rolling,' procrastinating in making payments in hopes that claimants grow tired, desolate and more likely to accept what is offered."

"They do this limbo thing. Let it cool down, let these people get desperate. These people have no jobs, no insurance," said Mr. Scruggs, who is fighting his own battle with insurers over the loss of his Mississippi home to Katrina. "The insurance companies vacillate on making any commitment at all, hoping it'll all die down and the news channel will change subjects. This isn't their first rodeo."

A Biloxi evacuee we've met, who is now living in Gulf Breeze, tells anyone who will listen that his insurance company is refusing to pay.

"I evacuated to higher ground just a couple of blacks away," he says. "I actually saw my house ripped apart by wind. Three hours later, the flooding water moved what was left off the foundation. Now, the insurance company is saying it was all flood damage, no wind. They've refused to pay more than two thousand dollars."

One wonders what he would think to learn that his insurance company probably is making money off his misery. According to the Dallas newspaper:

Douglas Heller, executive director of the National Flood Insurance Program, says delays actually make money for the insurance industry.

"A month long delay in claims for 50 destroyed homes could bring in more than $30,000 in investment income to the underwriter," he said. Also, the "longer the delay, the more likely homeowners will settle for less."

To date, "only about 5,000 of the 225,000 possible claims have been settled for both Hurricane Katrina and Rita."

Tropical Storm Alphabets

With a little more than two weeks left in the official hurricane season, and a month and half to the new year, the Associated Press is reporting a new "tropical depression... formed in the southeast Caribbean Sea" late Sunday evening. It is expected to become "Tropical Storm Gamma" on Monday.

Tropical Depression 27 formed late Sunday, and was expected to be south of Jamaica by the end of the week, over Caribbean waters still warm enough to feed a major hurricane, said hurricane specialist Stacy Stewart.

It is not expected to threaten the United States.

After running out of English-language names for 2005 tropical storms, the National Hurricane Center has been borrowing from the Greek alphabet. We've already used two Greek letters.

Whatever will we do if we use up all the Greek letters, too? One option is to turn to the Cyrillic alphabet.

How do you say, "Hurricane Б"?

edited for typos 11-14-5

Miller Snubbed Over Drilling Stance

The Pensacola News Journal today issues a big 'Thank You' to those members of the Florida congressional delegation -- our two U.S. senators and a dozen Democratic congressmen -- who successfully opposed the Bush administration's proposal to drill in over half of the Gulf of Mexico's "Area 181" south of Pensacola.

Specifically not included was Jeff Miller (R-Chumuckla) and 12 of his oily Republican colleagues from Florida. Miller betrayed the beaches by promoting Big Oil ahead of his own constituents' interests.

Mystery at Citizens Property Insurance

One of the many enduring mysteries at Citizens Property Insurance is why Bob Ricker is still the head of it.

Bob Ricker, December 2003: "I am committed to managing Citizens like a true insurance company... . "

Bob Ricker, November 2005: "Citizens Executive Director Bob Ricker... says he was unaware of many of the personal and financial conflicts his hire carried aboard."

Thanks to Paige St. John and other reporters who have kept Citizens Property Insurance under the microscope, we've known that people Ricker hired and supervised directly are accused of taking bribes and that others he supervised were busy feathering their own nests while hurricane claims went unattended.

Today, we learn that the adjusting companies he employed worked without written contracts while they ripped off Citizens Property with padded bills:

Pay stubs and invoices document that [claims adjusting contractor] Quantum billed Citizens as much as $950 a day for adjusters who in turn received as little as $238 a day. In addition, Quantum billed Citizens for seven days a week of expenses but paid those adjusters only for five or six days.

"Citizens was aware, and they did nothing about it," said Roosevelt Johnson, who was among the veteran adjusters surprised to learn Quantum billed Citizens about three times what he was paid for his work.

Can it be that "managing Citizens like a true insurance company" means screwing nearly everybody -- except the corporate executives themselves?

There's more in the Ft. Myers News-Press.

Trashing The Trash Baskets

Friday morning we shared a true tale about management orders to postal workers that caused the removal of waskebaskets from the post-Ivan temporary post office box facility at the Harbortown shopping center in Gulf Breeze -- the better to be sure we didn't throw away junk mail as we left.

Later that same day, two things of interest happened:

• A reader, Bryan, added a comment to the blog article reporting, "The main post office in Fort Walton has also removed all trash cans from the lobby." (Just scroll down to the end of this article to read Bryan's note.) He wonders if some sort of stealthy national policy is underfoot to boost the fortunes of commercial solicitors by forcing junk mail down our throats; and


• National Public Radio covered the same topic Friday evening by interviewing Michael Fitzgerald, one of what is now being called "The St. Petersburg Seven" -- mail carriers who have been threatened with job termination because they obeyed a few customer requests that their junk mail be stopped. You can listen to the interview on NPR's web site.
  

What we want to know is, have other post offices in the U.S. been removing their trash baskets? Please check yours and let us know.